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September 08, 2003
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Friday, August 22, 2003
Wood plant reborn as
construction waste burner
By Bob Sanders, NHBR
The Hopkinton wood-burning power plant, shut down for more
than a year, plans to reopen as early as November, this time burning
primarily construction and demolition debris. It would be the first
incinerator to focus on C&D waste in the
state.
The state gave a final go-ahead in July
to plant owner Bio Energy LLC, allowing it to release 2.66
tons of lead emissions annually into the atmosphere -- more than 15
times the amount of lead currently emitted into the air by all
industrial sources in the state.
Bio Energy
officials say that it anticipates releasing far less lead than the
permitted level, but won’t know for sure until the plant goes on
line. An affiliated company three miles away in Henniker plans to
grind up much of the construction and demolition waste -- known as
C&D -- screening out some of the lead that flakes off painted
wood during the operation. Further processing at the plant site
would further reduce the output.
Still, the
amount of lead concerns some residents and experts. Michael Close, a
painting contractor who raises bison adjacent to the plant, wonders
why it’s OK to emit hundreds of pounds of lead on his land, “but if
I allow any leaded paint to fall on the ground when scraping down an
old house, the EPA would close the job site
down.”
His view was echoed by Katie Lajoie, a
member of Working on Waste, a public advocacy group opposed to
incineration, and a registered public health nurse with expertise on
the health effects of lead on children.
“Lead
is a persistent toxic substance that builds up in the body and in
the environment and causes harm in low doses,” she said. “No level
can be called safe. It is certainly alarming that the state would
allow two tons of lead to be dumped into the air over Hopkinton each
year.”
But state Department of Environmental
Services permit engineer Doug Laughton maintained that the lead
levels allowed at the plant were well within health and safety
limits and provide a needed outlet for C&D waste, which is
quickly filling up landfill space.
“At least
this way we can get some energy for it,” he
said.
Indeed, since some states classify
C&D wood as an alternative renewable fuel, Bio Energy
might be able to sell “green” energy credits to utilities that
consume its power.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency also has given the plant its blessing. Indeed, the
only thing the plant appears to need is not more permits, but cash
-- roughly $2.5 million in financing.
“If we
get that [financing], we should be ready to begin construction at
the end of August or early September,” said plant manager Harry
Smith.
A New Hampshire
first
Bio Energy was the first wood plant
in the state to burn whole tree wood chips to create electricity
when it opened in 1982, taking advantage of the fixed-priced,
30-year contracts offered by Public Service of New Hampshire to
insure a stable energy source in the face of rising oil prices.
Seven other burners struck the same deal, providing a great market
for timberland owners’ low-grade wood.
Oil
prices didn’t rise, however, and what was once a bargain became a
burden to the utility and the ratepayers.
With
the state Public Utilities Commission’s encouragement, PSNH bought
out four of the contracts, including Bio Energy’s, in 2001.
Three, including Bio Energy, shut down, unable to burn whole
tree chips at a profit. Whitefield Power and Light is expected to
close at the end of September, and the others could shut after their
rate orders expire in the next few years.
But
that tale of economic woe may be over.
If
Bio Energy succeeds in obtaining financing, its facilities in
Hopkinton and Henniker would employ 50 people, chop up 78,000 tons
of wood and burn 125,000 tons of wood each year, producing some 12.5
megawatts of electricity. It might even continue to buy some whole
tree wood chips.
“It would be the only wood
plant that sold its rate order to come back,” Smith said. “It’s
possible that others will do something similar. I’m sure they will
be watching carefully. It’s quite a bit of innovative technology we
are proposing. It’s never been all put together
before.”
While burning C&D waste is new to
New Hampshire, it has been happening for some time in the rest of
the nation. The EPA estimates that more than some 4.7 million tons,
more than a tenth of “urban wood waste” nationally, goes up in
smoke. Some 1.3 million tons (or more than 25 percent) is burned in
California alone.
Indeed, a good portion of
New Hampshire’s 182,000 tons of C&D waste is already burned, out
of state.
Some 111,000 tons go to both the
Environmental Resources Recovery Corp. facility in Epping and the
LL&S Wood Processing Plant in Salem, according to state figures.
Those two facilities also accept a total of 156,000 tons of imported
C&D. They then separate out the wood to be burned at plants in
Maine.
“Almost all the wood is burned,” said
Leo Larochelle, manager of the ERRCO facility. “It’s the best use
for it.”
Larochelle said that the plant has
been sending C&D wood chips to Maine incinerators for at least
eight years.
Such plants have come under fire
from some environmentalists because of the assorted wastes that slip
into the fuel. In Florida, for instance, a large percentage of wood
treated with copper chromium arsenate was found in the fuel, even
though it was supposed to be screened out. Although such wood can no
longer be used, an increasing amount is expected to fall into the
waste stream over the next few decades. (The Bio Energy plant
does not plan to accept any such
wood.)
N.H.’s lead
emissions
Thus far, few plants have been
criticized for burning painted wood. That might be because at least
some states forbid it.
But under its
permit, Bio Energy will be able to burn wood containing up to
100 parts per million of lead, without installing any extra
emissions controls. Such modern equipment has resulted in a marked
reduction of lead emissions throughout the
state.
For instance, at the time the stricter
emissions controls were installed on PSNH’s coal-burning plant in
Bow, DES had estimated that it would emit six tons of lead. But when
it first tested actual emissions, only five pounds were emitted from
its stacks in 2002.
Similarly, Webster Valve
in Franklin reduced its actual lead emissions from 500 pounds a year
to less than 10 pounds a year. And the Claremont municipal waste
incinerator has reduced its lead emissions from more than 30 pounds
a year to less than four pounds.
The largest
emitter of lead in the state appears to be PSNH’s Schiller plant in
Portsmouth, which released some 75 pounds into the air in
2002.
The entire output of lead emissions for
the entire state in 2001 -- the last year such figures were compiled
-- was about 350 pounds.
The Bio Energy
plant would be permitted to emit more than 5,000 pounds of lead. The
permit levels were based on burning a test batch made up of 50
percent C&D chips. At first, the state said that the Bio
Energy plant would even be able to exceed the 2.66-ton lead
limits. The limits are based on the effect lifelong exposure to the
emissions would have on a person standing at the site of maximum
impact, which in this case happens to be water at Elm Brook Park in
Hopkinton, a popular family swimming area.
But
DES reversed itself after deciding that the projection for lead
emissions should err on the side of caution, according to Laughton,
who reviewed the permit.
Both Laughton and
Smith were quick to point out that they expect that there will be
much less lead emitted than actually permitted. The reductions in
lead that they expect would not come through emission controls, but
by carefully cleaning the fuel before it was
burned.
Ready to
go
DES held a public hearing on the Bio
Energy plant permit in May, but aside from the required ads in
the local newspaper, the meeting received no publicity and only
seven residents showed up.
Michael Close, the
painting contractor who raises bison, was the only one to raise
concerns about lead emissions. Another resident, Byron Carr, was
worried about any impact the plant would have on the Merrimack
River, but because of limited expertise, he put his trust in
environmental officials.
“If everything is
done right it should be fine, but the state has limits about how
much it can safeguard and a lot of it they are policing themselves,”
he said.
Jayne Schoch, a community activist,
who lived right next to the plant, was mainly concerned about the
noise.
Both Carr and Schoch thought the plant
would be an improvement over Bio Energy’s last proposal -- to
treat sewage sludge -- because C&D waste wouldn’t produce as
much odor. Both also were eager to see some economic activity at the
plant, which sits next to a vacant paper
mill.
Schoch, however, would have preferred
something less industrial. “It’s a beautiful area, next to a covered
bridge,” she said. “We should be looking at other options, but quite
frankly, I’m glad to see something there.”
DES issued a solid waste permit a week after
the May hearing and the air permit was approved on July 22. The EPA
had agreed to the proposal earlier. Citizens do have until late
September to petition the EPA, which could theoretically object to
the plant, and hold up, or modify, the
permit.
But such objections are extremely
rare, said Wright. And an EPA official said there was little the
federal agency could do, since regulating lead output has generally
been left up to the states.
“Legally, we could
burn it tomorrow,” said Smith.
If the
financing goes through, Smith hopes to begin operation in November
or by next spring, he said.
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